


Misplaced

by Jalice



Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-12
Updated: 2020-11-12
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:29:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27524641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jalice/pseuds/Jalice
Summary: Stranded behind the frontline in war-torn Korea, Adam Driver, an English teacher, and an elderly Korean woman team up in an adventure/melodrama to protect two children and find their way safely back to the American Airforce base.Don't ask me where this story came from, guys, it just hijacked my original NaNoWriMo concept!





	Misplaced

**Author's Note:**

> **To be honest, this is a story I don’t fully approve of. It came to me of its own accord and owned my headspace for months until it broke through to the page during a bad bout of NaNoWriMo writer’s block. I’m uncomfortable tagging a celebrity--a real human-- in a silly fic, but my reason argued that this Adam is no less an invented character than Kylo Ren. As are Joanne and their son, (whom I’ve called Henry), and all the rest of the ridiculousness that make up this bizarre, soapy adventure.**
> 
> **So there’s that. Enjoy?**

Francesca locked the door behind the sergeant with a click which reverberated in the silence. It seemed like ages since Ajumma had gathered the exhausted children and put them to bed for the last time. Tomorrow the old woman would bid them both farewell, and Francesca hoped they would remember the endless patience with which they had been attended throughout this ordeal. Caro might, but Henry was probably too little. She made a mental note to ask Sergeant Jameson to take their picture together before Ajumma departed. They’d likely all be dead now, if it weren’t for Ajumma’s help.

Francesca turned away from the door to face the tall, comely man who had served as her comrade and partner. He stood not ten feet away, amber eyes fixed on her. His arms hung limp at his side, his right forearm resting in front of the sidearm at his belt. Adam had grown lean and lanky since their first meeting, a lifetime ago. His longish black hair was pulled back in a ponytail behind large, jutting ears. His somewhat patchy overgrown beard had a few lines of grey now. She’d grown more lean and gray over the last hellish months too. He looked as lost as she had felt, just a moment ago. Her hand grazed the scar at her hip as a wave of conviction rippled through her being.

“Well, we made it. Tomorrow we go ‘home.’” Her chin trembled, but the raw rasp in her throat did not touch her voice. “For the first and only time, it feels like it’s just you and me. Without the world on our shoulders. And I can’t help it, Adam. I want so much to be _yours_ before we go _._ Just this once.”

He didn’t answer. His Adam's apple bobbed as he flattened his lips. After an excruciating pause, he closed in and slowly lifted his large left palm to rest over her heartbeat. Her eyes broke from the graceful, meaty hand she’d come to know by heart, rising and falling with the rhythm of her breath. Her gaze trailed up the gangling lineaments of his throat, jaw, and mouth, over the spray of freckles and moles, to the narrowed, amber brown eyes--scouring them for any hint of the longing she felt. A tinny voice protested in the recesses of her mind, _This will wreck you, you know._ She couldn’t bring herself to care. About his wife waiting in Gunsan. About whether they’d ever see each other again. About how this moment of bald honesty would rend her heart and soul. Not even about how unfair this confession was. How... _wrong_. 

She lifted up on her toes and tilted her head upwards, inviting a kiss. 

_Even if it’s a lie, say it will be alright. And I shall believe._

* * *

It was bittersweet to witness the reunion of his family. Joanne was already running toward their jeep as Adam and Henry disembarked from the back seat. Francesca squeezed Caro in her arms in the front seat as she watched another mother embrace the baby she feared she had lost, clutch her husband and son to her breast, blissed out in the gratitude of their existence. Francesca’s heart broke with beauty...and with the finality that the scene lent. Adam and Henry would go home now, leaving her and Caro all alone in the world again. It was enough, had always been enough. But... But it would feel different now. Infused with the tiny aching loss of the family they had all been to each other once upon a time--in the midst of all out hell. 

Caro wriggled in her arms, struggling to reach the door handle, “Henry! Henry!” 

Francesca didn’t budge. She wasn’t sure it was right, to let Caro intrude on their reunion. But Henry wriggled to be put down at the sound of Caro’s screeches and Joanne and Adam broke their embrace to squint at them both through the glare on the windshield. Joanne kissed her son’s crown, then gently placed him on the ground and let him lead her around to the passenger side of the jeep. Francesca inhaled and closed her eyes as she opened the door for Caro, who clamored down a little shyly now that a strange woman with a tear-streaked face was approaching with Henry. Francesca followed suit. 

“This is Fran, the woman who--”

“I remember.” Joanne interrupted Adam’s introduction and gathered Francesca into a hug. “Thank you. Thank you for bringing them back to me.” Francesca shuddered under the weight of an impending sob as she laid her head on Joanne’s shoulder. 

“You’re welcome.”

**Author's Note:**

> lyrics appropriated from Sheryl Crow - "I Shall Believe"


End file.
